In Wichita, Pompeo and Tiahrt Vie for Koch Backing

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) is being challenged by his predecessor, Todd Tiahrt, who endorsed him twice for the seat. They have both benefited heavily from the financial backing of the Koch Industries. (Flickr/Gage Skidmore)

Last month, former Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt announced his candidacy for the state’s Fourth Congressional District seat by shooting some early barbs at his former protégé, incumbent Rep. Mike Pompeo, citing some of the “big policy differences” that divide them. The Republican rivals have one thing in common, though — the hand that has fed their political careers is one and the same: the Koch Industries.

Seated at the heart of the disputed district in Wichita, the company’s PAC and employees have already given hefty amounts to Pompeo’s 2014 re-election bid. This cycle, he is by far the top recipient of Koch Industries funding, with $50,000 pocketed by his campaign and $5,000 by his leadership PAC, CavPAC. Koch’s No. 2 recipient, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has received less than half that amount, about $20,000.

With no prior legislative experience, Pompeo breezed into national politics by winning Tiahrt’s seat in 2010. He was backed then by an endorsement from Tiahrt, who was running for Senate, as well as generous financial support from Koch. Koch Industries had never spent as much on a candidate in a single cycle as it did on Pompeo that time around, giving him a total $80,000. Koch outdid itself again in the 2012 cycle by ponying up $110,000 for Pompeo’s campaign.

A member of the first freshman class elected after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, Pompeo was soon being called “the congressman from Koch” by hostile liberal groups. They pointed at his legislative record — including efforts to cancel a federal database of consumer complaints and reduce funding for the Environmental Protection Agency — as well as his ties to Koch Industries. Those date back to the 1990s, when Koch Venture Capital served as a seed investor for his company, Thayer Aerospace, also based in Wichita.

Now, Pompeo wields conservative gravitas in the House. A member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and of the House Intelligence Committee, he was nominated to join the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which have become a political lightning rod for the Obama administration.

But in Tiahrt, Pompeo has serious competition for the Koch badge of loyalty. Tiahrt’s political allegiance to the Wichita-based oil giant is decades in the making. After a lucrative career at Boeing, Tiahrt first clinched the House seat in 1994, beating nine-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Dan Glickman by a six-point margin.

From then on, he had the full backing of Koch and was one of the company’s top three recipients from 1996 through his unsuccessful run to succeed former Sen. Sam Brownback (R), who left his seat to become governor. Throughout his eight-term career, he collected $329,000 from the company’s employees and PAC. He’s even received more over time from Koch Industries than Pompeo, who got $240,000.

It’s still not clear whether Koch will pick a side in this race, which has already featured some aggressive jabs from both sides. “I am surprised that Todd has chosen to attempt to get back the job he abandoned back in 2010,” Pompeo said in response to Tiahrt’s candidacy speech. His predecessor had endorsed him in both his original and re-election bids.

Pompeo can count on an early bird advantage: He’d already raised $1.4 million as of March 31 and had over $2 million on hand. He’s gained the endorsement of Club for Growth and has earned a 100 percent scorecard rating from the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity, which has not yet responded to Tiahrt’s candidacy. Meanwhile, David Koch personally gave $5,200 to Pompeo’s campaign — as much as he legally could — as early as last August. Charles Koch’s son Chase gave $2,600.

But Tiahrt has just begun fundraising; he officially registered his campaign on June 5th. And though his personal fortune is smaller than Pompeo’s, he could receive help from another deep-pocketed donor: his former employer, Boeing Co. Over the years, he racked up $126,000 in donations from the aerospace company, including $80,000 directly from its PAC. During his failed 2010 Senate bid, Boeing and Koch Industries were neck-and-neck on his donor list, giving him more than $40,000 each. Boeing might be less inclined to spend big in Kansas, having almost entirely shuttered its operations in Wichita. But if it decides to back him, it could strap some jet packs onto Tiahrt’s bid to return to the House.

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